Fighter director Siddharth Anand says his remark on '90% Indians not having flown in planes' was taken out of context

After the release of his last directorial Fighter, Siddharth Anand had claimed that “90% of Indians” who've never travelled via air didn't relate to the film.

Siddharth Anand's aerial action entertainer Fighter didn't dominate the box office like the filmmaker expected it to. Months after attributing part of the reason to the lack of relatability with flying in planes among most Indians, Siddharth has now clarified his past remark in an interview with Bollywood Hungama. (Also Read – Siddharth Anand reacts to Fighter receiving legal notice: ‘IAF has been a co-collaborator on the film')

Siddharth Anand's Fighter starred Hrithik Roshan as a fighter pilot.

What Siddharth had said earlier

After Fighter didn't open to the numbers he expected, Siddharth had reasoned in an interview with Galatta Plus, “Fighter is a huge leap for a filmmaker. It’s a space that is unexplored and absolutely new. It has no reference point for the audience. They are like, ‘What are these planes doing?’ There is a huge percentage of our country, I would say, 90 per cent, who have not flown in planes, who have not been to an airport, so how would they know what’s happening in the movie? This is my dissection. They felt this is a little alien. They didn’t understand what kind of exhilaration they are supposed to feel in the air action, so there is a certain initial disconnect.”

Siddharth's clarification

Now, in a new interview, Siddharth clarified that he didn't imply 90% of Indians not having travelled via air as the only reason behind the lackluster performance of Fighter at the box office. “Obviously, I didn’t mean that. But a lot of free minds had a lot of free time to make memes. It was taken completely out of context. What I actually meant was, when seeing a film like that, I don’t know what the exhilaration is. I can understand when you have guns and cars hitting each other. This was a very true film and you probably may not get the exhilaration that I am supposed to feel in an action film. You are stuck between, ‘Is this an action film or a drama?’ I think that translation got lost. I didn’t mean to talk about the statistics. I only meant that they will probably not know what the exhilaration is till they come to the theatre.”

Fighter, set around the Indian Air Force, starred Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover, Akshay Oberoi, and Sanjeeda Sheikh among others. Co-produced by Siddharth's Marflix Pictures and Viacom18 Pictures, it released in Indian cinemas on January 25 on the occasion of Republic Day. Siddharth's next release as a co-producer is Sujoy Ghosh's crime drama King, which will reunite him with Shah Rukh Khan after Pathaan. It's also being backed by the actor's Red Chillies Entertainment.